Rua Arquitetos designs unique rainwater collecting canopy for Rio 2016 Olympic Golf Course

Pedro Évora and Pedro Rivera of Brazilian architecture studio Rua Arquitetos won the competition to design the golf course for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Located in Barra da Tijuca, the Olympic Golf Course will host events for both men and women competitors during this summer's games.

Featuring a water-saving design, the golf course incorporates an innovative tree-like canopy that collects rainwater to irrigate the course. The layout positions all the facilities around a grassy courtyard, which lies beneath a canopy of branching steel columns and taut waterproof fabric.

While providing sun shading for both indoor and outdoor spaces, the canopy also integrates a rainwater recycling system with the water collected by the tree-like structures draining down into an underwater storage tank, ready to be pumped out across the greenway.

Photography by Leonardo Finotti

The architects explained that they decided to design a building arranged as a comfortable balcony, dissolving its limits between the landscape, volume and users. For this purpose, a plaza was created to articulate the programmatic volumes around it, crowned by a large cover sheltering the space. The translucent roof captures rainwater and provides shade.

Located at the entranceway to the 18-hole course, the small building complex presents visitors with an extensive view across the artificial landscape. A gym, locker rooms, golf shop and reception, office facilities and social areas are also part of the complex with the headquarters for the Brazilian Golf Confederation also built in close proximity.

Golfing events will be part of the Olympic Games at Rio 2016 for the first time since the 1904 games held in St Louis, Missouri. Located near the AECOM-masterplanned Barra Olympic Park, the course will host events on 11–14 and 17–20 August.

Photography by Leonardo Finotti